Since their discovery, conducting organic polymers have been of interest from both a theoretical and technological point of view. Research involving conducting polymers has shown promise of significant breakthrough in several areas including energy storage devices, electrochromic displays, corrosion prevention, and molecular electronic devices. In recent years, conducting polymers have been used as electrocatalytic structures, drug delivery systems and ion gates. This has opened up the potential for numerous new applications in biochemical technology such as the incorporation of biomolecules in a conducting polymer matrix or the development of sensors which combine the specificity of a biological reaction with the sensitivity of an electrochemical technique.
Known conducting polymers include polyheterocycles, such as polypyrrole, polythiophene, polyaniline and their derivatives. These particular materials have attracted special attention due to their characteristics of stability in the presence of oxygen and water. Unfortunately, these materials suffer from poor mechanical properties such as brittleness at high conductivities which have greatly limited their use in practical applications.
Numerous attempts have been made to improve the mechanical properties of these conducting polymers so as to adapt them to various utilities. These attempts include polymerization on a substrate material, copolymerization processes and the synthesis of new monomers While these processes have resulted in useful data, they have failed for various reasons to provide a commercially viable product having the necessary characteristics.